As a professor who routinely gives written assignments, and who also deals with people with disabilities, I have to disagree with Bostonian. We had a blind student in our grad program who could not do the written comps - choice was either a professional scribe or do an oral exam. Should we have not allowed her to graduate because she couldnt demostrate competence with our preferred method? For my students with LDs which affect written work, which oddly being blind does not, not with computers, we just figure out what they need to do. Dyslexics usually want more time. However, if there were other issues, I just need documentation of what they are, and what is the preferred method to deal with. Someone with expressive issues, I could see asking to do an annotated outline which they then present to me orally. That way I could see the research. I am pretty sure I could design equivalent assignments. In all likelihood I would have to guard against being too hard since it is much harder to present supported argument orally than written for undergraduates.
I think a social science or humanities is tough for someone with an LD but certainly not impossible. And given that the goals of universities are to educate and prepare for the future - to limit the way in which someone can demonstrate competence is short sighted. And I have never had someone suggest that another student had it easier or received a break from me over an accommodation, because the answer to why did I get a B is always found in ones own work, not in someone else's.
DeHe
